Happy Days for Boys and Girls Part 7

WILLIAM M. THAYER.

THE STORY OF JOHNNY DAWDLE.

Here, little folks, listen; I'll tell you a tale, Though to shock and surprise you I fear it won't fail; Of Master John Dawdle my story must be, Who, I'm sorry to say, is related to me.

And yet, after all, he's a nice little fellow: His eyes are dark brown and his hair is pale yellow; And though not very clever or tall, it is true He is better than many, if worse than a few.

But he dawdles at breakfast, he dawdles at tea-- He's the greatest small dawdle that ever could be; And when in his bedroom, it is his delight To dawdle in dressing at morning and night.

And oh! if you saw him sit over a sum, You'd much wish to pinch him with finger and thumb; And then, if you scold him, he looks up so meek; Dear me! one would think that he hardly could speak.

Each morning the same he comes tumbling down, And often enough is received with a frown, And a terrible warning of something severe Unless on the morrow he sooner appear.

But where does he live? That I'd rather not say, Though, if truth must be told, I have met him to-day; I meant just to pa.s.s him with merely a bow, But he stopped and conversed for a minute or so.

"Well, where are you going?" politely said I; To which he replied, with a groan and a sigh, "I've been doing my Latin from breakfast till dinner, And pretty hard work that is for a beginner."

"But now I suppose you are going to play And have pleasure and fun for the rest of the day?"

"Indeed, but I'm not--there's that bothering sum; And then there's a tiresome old copy to come."

[Ill.u.s.tration: JOHNNY DAWDLE.]

"Dear me!" I replied, and I thought it quite sad There should be such hard work for one poor little lad; But just at that moment a lady pa.s.sed by, And her words soon made clear that mistaken was I:

"Now, then, Mr. Dawdle, get out of my way!

I suppose you intended to stop here all day; The bell has done ringing, and yet, I declare, Your hands are not washed, nor yet brushed is your hair."

"Ho, ho!" I exclaimed; "Mr. Dawdle, indeed!"

And I took myself off with all possible speed, Quite distressed that I should for a moment be seen With one who so lazy and careless had been.

So now, if you please, we will wish him good-bye; And if you should meet him by chance, as did I, Just bid him good-morning, and say that a friend (Only don't mention names) hopes he soon may amend.

THE MOTHERLESS BOY.

One day, about a year ago, the door of my sitting-room was thrown suddenly open, and the confident voice of Harvey thus introduced a stranger:

"Here's Jim Peters, mother."

I looked up, not a little surprised at the sight of a ragged, barefoot child.

Before I had time to say anything, Harvey went on:

"He lives round in Blake's Court and hasn't any mother. I found him on a doorstep feeding birds."

My eyes rested on the child's face while my boy said this. It was a very sad little face, thin and colorless, not bold and vicious, but timid and having a look of patient suffering. Harvey held him firmly by the hand with the air of one who bravely protects the weak.

"No mother!" said I, in tones of pity.

"No, ma'am; he hasn't any mother. Have you, Jim?"

"No," answered the child.

"She's been dead ever so long; hasn't she, Jim?"

"Yes, ever since last winter," he said as he fixed his eyes, into which I saw the tears coming, upon my face. My heart moved toward him, repulsive as he was because of his rags and dirt.

"One of G.o.d's little lambs straying on the cold and barren hills of life," said a voice in my heart. And then I felt a tender compa.s.sion for the strange, unlovely child.

"Where do you live?" I asked.

"Round in Blake's Court," he replied.

"Who with?"

"Old Mrs. Flint; but she doesn't want me."

"Why not?"

"Oh, because I'm nothing to her, she says, and she doesn't want the trouble of me." He tried to say this in a brave, don't-care sort of way, but his voice faltered and he dropped his eyes to the floor. How pitiful he looked!

"Poor child!" I could not help saying aloud.

Light flashed over his pale face. It was something new to him, this interest and compa.s.sion.

"One of G.o.d's little lambs." I heard the voice in my heart saying this again. n.o.body to love him--n.o.body to care for him. Poor little boy!

The hand of my own child, my son who is so very dear to me, had led him in through our door and claimed for him the love and care so long a stranger to his heart. Could I send him out and shut the door upon him, when I knew that he had no mother and no home? If I heeded not the cry of this little one precious in G.o.d's sight, might I not be thought unworthy to be the guardian of another lamb of his fold whom I loved as my own life?

"I've got heaps of clothes, mother--a great many more than I want. And my bed is wide. There's room enough in the house, and we've plenty to eat," said Harvey, pleading for the child. I could not withstand all these appeals. Rising, I told the little stranger to follow me. When we came back to the sitting-room half an hour afterward, Jim Peters would hardly have been known by his old acquaintances, if any of them had been there. A bath and clean clothes had made a wonderful change in him.

I watched the poor little boy, as he and Harvey played during the afternoon, with no little concern of mind. What was I to do with him?

Clean and neatly dressed, there was a look of refinement about the child which had nearly all been hidden by rags and dirt. He played gently, and his voice had in it a sweetness of tone, as it fell every now and then upon my ears, that was really winning. Send him back to Mrs. Flint's in Blake's Court? The change I had wrought upon him made this impossible. No, he could not be sent back to Mrs. Flint's, who didn't want the trouble of him. What then?

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE MOTHERLESS BOY.]

Do the kind hearts of my little readers repeat the question, "What then?" Do they want very much to know what has become of little Jim Peters?

It is just a year since my boy led him in from the street, and Jim is still in our house. No one came for him. No one inquired about him. No one cared for him. I must take that last sentence back. G.o.d cared for him, and by the hand of my tender-hearted son brought him into my comfortable home and said to me, "Here is one of my lambs, astray, hungry and cold. He was born into the world that he might become an angel in heaven, but is in danger of being lost. I give him into your care. Let me find him when I call my sheep by their names."

As I finished writing the last sentence a voice close to my ear said "Mother!" I turned and received a loving kiss from the lips of Jim. He often does this. I think, in the midst of his happy plays, memory takes him back to the suffering past, and then his grateful heart runs over and he tries to reward me with a loving kiss. I did not tell him to call me "Mother." At first he said it in a timid, hesitating way, and with such a pleading, half-scared look that I was touched and softened.

"She isn't your real mother," said Harvey, who happened to be near, "but then she's good and loves you ever so much."